


Code Breakers Sweeping Out Across the Static Night

by iwasnthere622



Series: Wolves vs Berserkers [12]
Category: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Code breaking, Gangs, Gen, Hacking, Post-Apocalypse, Secret Messages, code
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 09:10:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10896201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasnthere622/pseuds/iwasnthere622
Summary: Ven shifted through his scattered papers, growling in frustration when he couldn't find the slide-cipher notes that he wanted. He dumped huge piles onto the floor, glaring at his walls and the ones already pinned up, eyes scanning but not finding it, dammit."Got another one, Ven," Marluxia said as he walked in, whistling softly at the destruction and chaos.





	Code Breakers Sweeping Out Across the Static Night

Ven shifted through his scattered papers, growling in frustration when he couldn't find the slide-cipher notes that he wanted. He dumped huge piles onto the floor, glaring at his walls and the ones already pinned up, eyes scanning but not _finding_ it, dammit.

"Got another one, Ven," Marluxia said as he walked in, whistling softly at the destruction and chaos.

Ven ignored him, going back to thumbing through his papers, knowing he had it somewhere, he remembered writing it down three weeks ago when Sora and Nami hit the Wolf's store, where did it _go_?

Pulling at his hair ten minutes later, he whirled to Marluxia, who was still standing in the doorway and watching him with wary amusement. "Did you go through my stuff?" he demanded.

"Nope," Marluxia said, popping his 'p' and holding his hands up in mock surrender. "Wasn't me. Sure you didn't just lose whatever it is you're looking for?"

"No," Ven snapped, glaring, looking around his room a bit desperately, diving at the bed to dig around under it -- maybe it'd fallen from when he'd been reviewing the patterns in bed the other night?

Half under the bed, Ven _finally_ found what he was looking for, shouting in triumph and wiggling back out, eyes racing over the sheet before he nodded to himself and grabbed another pin, slamming this page into his wall directly in the center of all the other code sheets.

"I don't understand how you work like this," Marluxia stated, walking further into the room now that it was safe.

"And I don't get how you work on just that tiny hand held! How can you see the patterns if they aren't spread out? How do you reference other things on that puny screen?" Ven said in return.

Marluxia snorted, handing over the newest collection of code stolen from the Wolves. "Easily and efficiently," he answered.

"And yet you can't actually break the codes, just steal them," Ven said with a grin.

"If I did everything around here, what would be the point of you?" Marluxia asked.

Ven flipped him off, snatching the code from him.

"Reno wants to send a fake reply tonight," Marluxia added, grinning at Ven's glare.

"You couldn't have _led_ with that?" Ven seethed, eyes scanning the new code.

Marluxia shrugged.

"Lucky for you, they're reusing ciphers. I cracked this one six months ago," Ven said, certain of it, staring at his wall to find the right one, picking up a pencil and decoding the message once he found it, shifting the numbers to letters via the city handbook, page 394.

"...You recognized the code from six months ago?" Marluxia asked, grudgingly impressed.

Ven smirked. "You didn't?"

It was Marluxia's turn to grumble. "Hey, their hacker isn't dumb enough to repeat moves, I don't get cushy jobs like you."

Ven rolled his eyes. "Of course he does, everyone does, you just can't see the pattern on your tiny screen."

"You done or what?" Marluxia demanded, ready to snatch the response and get it to Reno.

"Don't get your panties in a twist," Ven snapped, writing faster. "Make sure Reno uses the code phrase in his response or they'll know it's fake," he reminded, handing the paper over, said code phrase circled and underlined twice.

Marluxia rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he turned on his heel and left.

\--

"Give me the single-letter binder -- no, the blue one -- the _other_ blue one," Zex said, waving his hand impatiently at Rox until he was handed the correct binder, coded pages spread out on his desk.

"There's two more files hidden in here, I can see the data they are using but can't access them, fuck they are hiding something big here," Rox muttered, turning back to his screen.

"Won't mean anything if we can't crack the code, who the fuck uses random single-letter ciphers?" Zex complained, flipping through his archives to try to find a similar cipher.

"Fuck, fuck, they had a hidden trojan, no you don't you fucker," Roxas snarled, fingers flying over the keys.

"Okay, wait, maybe... yes... yes.. no, shit," Zex sighed, trying another cipher, going through both blue binders.

"New one, great, I love when they use new ones, why can't they reuse their shit like every other lowlife, who the fuck is running this," Zex grumbled.

"Any luck?" Ax asked as he wandered in, only to get cursed at by the pair of them. "...I'll come back later," he decided, leaving to make a DO NOT DISTURB sign to hang on the door.

"Hah! Take that you fucker!" Rox crowed, managing to get to the files at last. "Encrypted, of course," he muttered, working on that next, a rolling code generator trying thousands of combinations while he manually sifted through the code for a backdoor.

"Okay, wait - I think - the clown rides a midnight?" Zex stared in confusion at the decoded message. "Are they fucking with us?! ...Wait, it's a code within the code!"

He tugged down the black binder, flipping through that, glancing at the ciphers in the blue binders, comparing the lettering styles...

"This is a grocery list?!" Zex said, incredulous, banging his head on his desk.

"Dude, seriously," Rox asked, glancing up from his screen. "You sure?"

"They used three separate codes, to hide their grocery list," Zex responded miserably. "I hate their coder."

"Well, send out a message about a fairytale or something... maybe Penn could use the list to narrow down suppliers?" Rox added, trying to be helpful.

"I don't think basic ingredients will be easy to pin to one distribution location," Zex said gloomily, but he started on a copy of the decoded message to give to Tifa.

"Any luck with those other files?" he asked a moment later, hoping there was at least something useful in those.

Rox snatched up a paper and started writing. "It's symbols, but I think I got it," he answered with a nod, handing over the paper a moment later and setting his console down, flexing trired fingers.

"Great," Zex huffed, pulling down the red binder this time and getting to work on this set.

He zoned out as he worked, muttering to himself because this was a cipher he'd never seen before and he was amazed at their coder even as he wanted to kill him.

He barely noticed Rox leaving or bringing him back a drink, focusing on the work, trying various transitions and flips on the symbols, matching one to the corner page of a book and that was it, they were every third page symbols of a certain word, the number of vertical and horizontal lines dictating placement...

"Rox," Zex said two hours later, blinking and looking up for the blonde, who was sprawled on the floor and back on his handheld.

"This is..." he trailed off, a little dazed. A new, hidden headquarters?

Rox raised an eyebrow and pushed himself up, moving over to read over Zex's shoulder, eyes widening.

"Holy shit," he breathed. "You sure?"

"Yeah, it was a pain in the ass but this is the message, I'm sure," Zex nodded, rotating stiff neck muscles and flexing his fingers.

"Barret's gonna flip his shit," Rox said, grinning at him.

"Everyone will," Zex nodded, grinning back.

"When?" Rox asked, nodding at the message.

"Not sure, there's some hints to a date but nothing concrete... within two weeks?" Zex guessed, staring at the message again.

"C'mon, let's go!" Rox said, grabbing his hand and dragging him up. Zex clutched the decoded message tightly, letting Rox drag him from the room, yelling for everyone to get to the meeting room now!


End file.
